Gladwin captures Coca Cola Classic

The Soo Cambrian Mazda Black Sox did not get quite the results they were hoping for this weekend as they hosted the Coca Cola Classic Invitational Baseball Tournament at Sinclair Yards. On Friday, the locals dropped a tough 8-6 decision at the hands of the Petoskey Indians, a team that the Black Sox will be seeing a lot of in the Great Lakes Baseball League.

Friday's other game saw Gladwin knock off Marquette by a 9-3 score.

Saturday opened up with the locals facing off against Marquette and picking up a 9-5 victory.

Following the Soo win, Gladwin and Petoskey squared off in what would be a championship preview and Gladwin looked to be in fine form as they knocked off the Indians by a 13-3 score.

In what could be considered the most entertaining game of the day Gladwin and the Black Sox tangled later on Saturday and provided fans with an entertaining extra-inning affair, as Gladwin knocked off the Black Sox 12-11 in nine innings.

Saturday was capped off with Petoskey beating Marquette 10-3 to close the round robin portion of the tournament.

Sunday morning saw the four teams' battle in semi-final action as the third place Black Sox took on second place Petoskey in the early game and Gladwin, who finished the round robin with a perfect 3-0 record, took on Marquette.

In the first semi-final, Petoskey opened up a 7-0 lead after two innings and cruised to a 10-0 win over the host team, knocking them from contention for the title.

In the second semi-final, Gladwin, who entered the tournament as the defending champion, grabbed a 9-1 lead and never looked back as they knocked off Marquette and set up a matchup with Gladwin for the championship.

In the final, Petoskey opened up a 2-0 lead in the opening inning.

That lead held until Gladwin came up to bat in the second inning. With Mike Ballard on base, number six hitter Ryan Seaford launched a two-run homerun to left field to tie the game at 2-2.

Then, later in the inning, with two runners on base, number nine hitter Justin Lee provided some heroics as he proceeded to launch a three-run homerun to centre field and give Gladwin a 5-2 lead through two innings. The five Gladwin runs in the inning came off of just the two hits.

In the fourth inning, Gladwin was back for more as they exploded for eight more runs to open up a 13-2 lead. Similar to the second inning, the eight Gladwin runs came off just five hits in the inning. Gladwin managed eight hits in total.

Petoskey tried to make a game of it by scoring four runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but it was not enough as Gladwin took the game 13-6 and won their second straight Coca Cola Classic title.

With the tournament in the books, the Black Sox now prepare to open the home portion of their Great Lakes Baseball League schedule on Monday night.

The Black Sox will host the Escanaba Cubs in a doubleheader on Monday night with action beginning at 6 p.m.